Immune response polymorphonuclear leukocytes

The white blood cells or leukocytes are nearly a thousandfold less numerous than red cells. About 7 x 106 cells are present per ml of blood. There are three types of leukocytes lymphocytes (-26% of the total), monocytes (-7% of the total), and polymorphonuclear leukocytes or granulocytes (-70% of the total). Lymphocytes are about the same size as erythrocytes and are made in lymphatic tissue. Individual lymphocytes may survive for as long as ten years. They function in antibody formation and are responsible for maintenance of long-term immunity. 

OTCs have severe effects on the immune systems, causing premature atrophy of thymus gland and lymphoid tissues as well as inhibition of spleen cell activity. Inhibition of phagocytosis and cytolysis of polymorphonuclear leukocytes with resultant depression of cell-mediated immune responses have also been demonstrated21-37. The influence of the thymus atrophy-inducing dibutyltin dichloride Bu2SnCl2 on the differentiation and proliferation of immature rat thymocyte subsets were studied in vivo and in vitro. The atrophy results from a depletion of small CD4+CD8+ thymocytes which is caused by a diminished production of immature CD4+CD8+ and CD4+CD8+ thymoblasts. Dibutyltin dichloride inhibits the activation, but not the differentiation of immature CD4+CD8+ thymocytes in vivo and in vitro, suggesting a selective antiproliferative activity of this compound. It also... 

At higher chemokine concentrations, polymorphonuclear leukocytes are activated to produce oxygen radicals and to degranulate (Taub et al., 1996). Several granule proteins, including the defensins, azurocidin, and cathepsin G, are themselves chemotactic for mononuclear cells and presumably serve as signals that help convert acute into chronic inflammatory responses and thus promote the conversion of innate into adaptive immune responses (Chertov et al., 1996, 1997). Thus, chemokines have the potential to activate a number of downstream... 

Leitzmann, C., Vithayasai, V., Windecker, P., Suskind, R. M., and Olson, R. E. (1977) Phagocytosis and killing function of polymorphonuclear leukocytes in Thai children with protein calorie malnutrition, in "Malnutrition and the Immune Response R. M. Suskind, ed., Raven Press, N.Y. 

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